goal is to get the glass put back in by Saturday 2/4/12. If it rains at all then that could delay me because i cant work in humid conidtions, the epoxy would dry way too fast. as it is i have 25 minutes to work with each layer of epoxy. if it gets too hot or too humid, that time goes down very fast.

anyways, the initial sanding is done, S*** took forever even with an air powered grinder. had to get through clear coat, paint, primer and sealer. im going back tonight to do the detail sanding by hand, like on all the edges and stuff.

car is going to need another major detailing inside out all the metal shavings and paint dust is EVERYWHERE. i covered all the windows too but it still got all over the place.

I would've sanded what I could on the roof with the front/rear glass still in.

Did you lay down a few practice pieces to make sure the resin color/weave wouldn't contrast with your hood/trunk?

This is going to be badass when complete!

yea i realize i should have started sanding before i pulled the glass, lol. o well.

i did do a couple practice pieces and it looks pretty good. not 100% identical but very very close. im eventually going to have all the CF LIGHTLY sprayed with NHBP anyways so that will for sure even things out.

man, its been what... 4-5 days and the roof was already beginning to rust (while parked inside the garage at all times) just from the moisture in the air. came down to look at my roof this morning to see it looking brown. so i had to go buy a rust removing solution from home depot, cleaned off all the rust, and sprayed the roof with SEM Black Self Etching Primer/Sealer. Im going to use an alternative method to lay the CF down that was brought to my attention by Brad. had i known of that method before, i wouldnt have had to sand my roof down to metal in the first place, since it was already black. o'well.

anyways, i didnt get any pics of the rusted roof but here's a couple of me masking up the whole car and covering it, and the roof after it was painted black again. going to let the paint cure overnight and begin the laying the CF down tomorrow. tomorrow will be an exciting day

i was honestly busy all day training for a new job and then i came home to fix the rust issue so i didnt have a chance to do a test piece. but to tell you the truth, i probably wont do one, it cant be any worse than what i was going to initially do anyways. im probaly going to do the plan B method anyways, but if i have time in the morning tomorrow, i'll do a quick test piece to see how well the weave sticks to the edges of a piece of scrap metal when i apply epoxy to it. im sure it'll be TONS better than the method i was going to do. i have a buddy coming over tomorrow around noon to help me with the roof so i'll do the test piece in the early AM and it should be dry enough by noon to get a good idea of how everything works.

i need to get my car back on the road by monday (new job) so i dont have a lot of time left to try this and that. i just need to go with the flow. glass has to go back on saturday. so tomorrow will be all epoxy lay up all day, then cure overnight, then friday i'll be sanding till my arm falls off and then clear coat at night and wetsand saturday morning, saturday afternoon, glass goes back in. thats the plan anyways, we'll see how things go.

just did a little sample piece with some complex curves, so far the CF weave is sticking to the piece very well, going to let the 3M 77 cure for an hour then slap some epoxy on it and see how well it holds after that. looks promising so far.

so brad, this method worked to a certain extent, there was still some lifting i had to deal with but not as much. also, i only did one layer of epoxy today because it just took so damn long that by the time it was tacky enough to apply another layer, i was shot and it was getting cold out. so im going to let the first layer go to full cure, then do a light sanding on it and add 2 more layers tomorrow. probably not going to get the glass on by Saturday so i'll have to borrow my dads car early next week to get to work.

anyways, pics from today...

CF glued down...

mixing resin, it cures clear

first layer of resin drying...

time to rest and add 2 more layers of resin tomorrow, maybe 3 depending how it looks. then sanding starts saturday with the glass hopefully going back in monday/tuesday.

Hmm...I wonder why you encountered some issues still with the S77 method.

I'm sure part of it entails you having that sunroof, it really complicates the tension levels that are present throughout the roof overlay. I didn't have a sunroof to deal with so the fabric could be stretched from each side without concerns of the tension dissipating in the center. Did you apply the s77 to the sunroof area first, then worked your way to the outer edges, or vice-versa?

It's coming along nicely though, and it'll look so much better than the Di-Noc or vinyl overlays you'll see around the shows. Can't wait to see it completed!

I wonder if it was the super 77? Not trying to bash other peoples methods or anything, especially if they had good results. Just thought people should know if they may want to attempt this, 3M makes a much stronger, and more resilient to heat, the elements etc... Adhesive. It's actually used for putting on vinyl tops. Their super trim adhesive part # 08090. When I was doing my headliner that's what I went with after reading some troubles people had with the 76 and 77 adhesive with their cars.You look like your past the need for it though aha it looks like it's coming good though, I'm excited for results.

Yeah, there's s77 and s90. Vimal had both, but I suppose it's up to the individual (along with temp/humidity levels, desired curing times, etc). S77 should have been sufficient enough for this, although I'm still curious about how big of a role that sunroof area plays in complicating things.

Probably a good share of it is due to that I know I personally had problems with that spot when I did my headliner, which is pretty much the same principal as this and it's practically the same area and shape as the roof only inverted.

on the next layer, instead of building up more on the flat areas, im going to mix a smaller batch and hit all the edges with a brush to build up epoxy there because im having a little bit of a hard time building up epoxy on the edges because it just runs off. the reason is does that is because unfortunately if you imagine all the edges being 90degree bends, the carbon fiber doesnt hug the 90degree bend perfectly, it sort of "apexs" the bend, meaning just before the bend, the material lifts and gradually bends around the 90degrees bends. so to lay up epoxy on these edges, i need to use a detailed brush and keep an eye on everything because when the time comes to sand everything, i need to make sure i dont sand into the fibers on the edges so the more epoxy the safer i'll be. i am likely going to apply 3-4 total layers of epoxy to give me enough of a buffer zone over the fiber to sand.

dammit, i just noticed some of the epoxy is hazing its a very light haze that can only be seen at a certain angle. i tried to get a picture of it but i cant capture it with the camera. i guess im going to have to live with it because there isnt anything i can do now really. luckily i had already planned to have all my CF slightly tinted with NHBP in the future, so hopefully that will hide what light hazing is visible.

im bummed to say the least but the project must go on. the roof is still going to look great imo but not as flawless as i had hoped. i havent had a chance to move the car into the sun to see how it looks but at night the haze can be seen only in the areas where the CF pattern isnt shining through (the dark areas when looking at CF)

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